Fruits of epic incompetence

1:44 PM,
Sep. 13, 2013

Charles Krauthammer

Written by

Charles Krauthammer
Columnist

The president of the United States takes to the airwaves to urgently persuade the nation to pause before doing something it has no desire to do in the first place.

Strange. And it gets stranger still. That "strike Syria, maybe" speech begins with a heart-rending account of children consigned to a terrible death by a monster dropping poison gas. It proceeds to explain why such behavior must be punished. It culminates with the argument that the proper response - the most effective way to uphold fundamental norms, indeed human decency - is a flea bite: something "limited," "targeted" or, as so ...